fmover

An open source file manager CLI that enables moving files based on file properties and specified criteria.

Description

fmover is an open source file management command line interface that makes it easy to automatically move files based on their properties and specific criteria. With fmover, you can move files based on their source, extension, and name by specifying these properties in a configuration file. This allows you to quickly and easily organize your files without having to manually move them yourself. Plus, fmover is compatible with Python 3.6 and higher and is available on PyPi for easy installation. With a simple configuration file, you can easily specify where to move your files and fmover will do the rest. Streamline your file organization and save time with fmover.

Getting Started

Dependencies

You need to have at least Python 3.6 installed on your system. You can download it from here.

The extended file attribute "WHERE_FROM" which stores where the file was downloaded/obtained from is currently only available on macOS. If you are on another operating system, you can still use the program but you will not be able to use the this property.

Installing

Install with pip:

pip install fmover

Usage

To get an overview of the available commands, run:

fmover -h

Editing, creating and deleting configurations

You will have a default configuration file once you install the program.

To list all available configurations, run:

fmover list

To print the content of a configuration file, run:

fmover print your_config_name

To create a new configuration file, run:

fmover create new_config

To open and eventually edit a configuration file in your default text editor, run:

fmover open your_config_name

To delete a configuration file, run:

fmover delete your_config_name

Moving files

To move one file based on the configuration, run:

fmover move /path/to/file your_config_name

To move all files in a directory based on the configuration, run:

fmover move-all /path/to/directory your_config_name

To get a pop-up notification when files are moved, run:

fmover move-all /path/to/directory your_config_name --notify

To create destination folders if they do not exist, run:

fmover move-all /path/to/directory your_config_name --force

To only get the information where the files would be moved without actually moving them, run:

fmover move-all /path/to/directory your_config_name --dry-run

The configuration

fmover uses a JSON configuration file to specify which file properties and patterns should be used to trigger file movements. The file is divided into four sections: COMMAND, WHERE_FROM, NAME, and FILE_EXTENSION.

Here is an example configuration file:

{
  "COMMAND": [
    {"NAME(Analysis) & WHERE_FROM(www.uni.com)": "WHERE_FROM(www.uni.com)"}, 
    {"FILE_EXTENSION(*)": "FILE_EXTENSION(*)"}
  ],
  "WHERE_FROM": {
    "www.uni.com": "/Users/user/Documents/Uni",
    "www.uni2.com": "/Users/user/Documents/Uni2"
  },
  "NAME": {
    "Analysis": "/Users/user/Documents/Uni/Analysis"
  },
  "FILE_EXTENSION": {
    ".pdf": "/Users/user/Documents/PDF",
    ".docx": "/Users/user/Documents/DOCX",
    ".pptx": "/Users/user/Documents/PPTX"
  }
}

COMMAND

This section specifies the conditions that must be met in order for a file to be moved. The format is a list of dictionaries, with each dictionary representing a command. Each command consists of an antecedent (left side of the command) and a consequent (right side of the command).

The antecedent is a combination of tokens, separated by conjunction (&). Each token is a file property and pattern, formatted as PROPERTY(PATTERN). If a file property matches the specified pattern, the token is considered true.

The consequent is a file property and pattern, formatted as PROPERTY(PATTERN). If the antecedent is true, the file will be moved to the destination specified by the consequent.

WHERE_FROM, NAME, and FILE_EXTENSION

These sections specify the file properties and patterns that can be used in the COMMAND section. Each section is a dictionary, with the keys being the patterns and the values being the destinations for the files. If a file property matches the specified pattern, it will be moved to the corresponding destination.

Example

In the above configuration, the first command states that if a file has the name "Analysis" and was obtained from "www.uni.com", it should be moved to the folder "/Users/user/Documents/Uni". The second command states that if a file has any extension defined in FILE_EXTENSION, it should be moved to the corresponding destination specified in the FILE_EXTENSION section (e.g. a pptx file would be moved to /Users/user/Documents/PPTX).

Automator Folder Action on macOS

On macOs, you can combine the program with the Automator Folder Action to automatically move files to the correct folder when they are downloaded. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Automator.
2. Click on "New Document".
3. Select "Folder Action" and click "Choose".
4. At "Folder action receives files and folders added to:" select the folder you want to monitor.
5. At the library on the left, search for "Run Shell Script" and double click it.
6. At the "Shell" field, select "pass input as arguments".
7. Paste the following code into your terminal and copy the output:

echo "for f in"' "$@"' "\ndo\n    $(which fmover) move"' "$f" default'"\ndone"

8. Paste the output into the "Shell" field.
9. Replace "default" with the name of your configuration.
10. Save the action.

Each time a file is added to the folder, the action will be executed and the file will be moved to the correct folder.

Help

"WHERE_FROM" doesn't work on my mac. What can I do?

Your Browser might not store any information about where a file was downloaded from. To find out if your browser stores this information, download a file and then run the following command in your terminal:

xattr -p com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms /path/to/downloaded/file

If the command returns nothing, your browser does not store this information. If it returns something, it does.

I know that it works on Chrome. If you know if it works on other browsers, please let me know.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Acknowledgments

Inspiration, code snippets, etc.

• filejuggler
• notify-py

Contribute

Contibutions are welcome! If you want to contribute, please follow these steps:

• Fork the repository and clone it to your local machine.
• Install Poetry
  • pipx install poetry
• Install dependencies
  • poetry install
• Create a new branch for your changes.
• Add patches/new features/bug fixes
• Run tests, lints and black formatting
  • poetry run pytest tests/*
  • poetry run pylint --errors-only src/fmover/
  • poetry run black src/fmover/
• Commit your changes and push them to your fork.
• Create a pull request from your fork to the main repository.

Thank you for considering contributing to fmover!